Trying to Understand the Why’s of Life…#howtomakeitinamerica

10/03/2011

By: Keysharion “Keke” Parker

Why do we seem to let other people get to us? They get us down, they ruin our weeks and weekends, and to just be truthful, steal our joy! Why do we allow people to take away what we feel and know about ourselves? It makes us feel inadequate on the job/school/church, and in friendships/relationships.

I get that other people are driven by accomplishment and acquisition of things. Why is it that you can’t be a nice person and have the amount of success you want, too? It seems like the more lazy, the least logical and crazy you are, the further you go in this life. The only comfort for us good-hearted people is knowing that our riches are supposedly not here on this earth. The greater treasure is the reward in the afterlife based on how we treated others.

In my quarter-life crisis, I’ve realized that I want it all…Brand new socks and draws…success and to be a good and kind individual. For some reason, however, I keep running into mofo’s who make everything difficult! I promise, it is not my intent to wanna curse anyone out on Monday morning on my job, but dammit other people sure make it hard for a sista. They smile in your face and then talk about you to your manager behind your back to make themselves look better. Why should I not want to kick someone in their teeth or stab them with a pencil?

I don’t condone violence at all, but I have sure seen my attitude get bad over the last few years. Reasons, I’m sure you know, like unfair treatment, lack of respect shown or being just plain talked about. All the drama has taught me that bad treatment shouldn’t denote me treating someone else like I smoke crack. I know that I don’t have to honk my horn back at the person who honked their horn at me because they were too impatient to wait for me to turn across traffic. I get it, but hell, I just don’t feel like going out of my way sometimes to be accommodating.

I think this quote from Mother Teresa says it best. Now, I’m no saint, but I want to be like one. Hopefully, the situations in life won’t alter my attitude too badly before I get there. Right now, people are working my nerves and I only exist to fight another day. One day, I’ll be open-minded enough to find joy in knowing that I’m enlightened enough to give the benefit of the doubt to others and not let it affect my moral psyche and demeanor.